Last weekend the family and I packed up for a true wilderness adventure! We had a nice day and a great ride down to the Merritt Island National Wildlife refuge! The last time the little guy and I headed out to the Brevard area, I was scoping out a scoping out some local hiking trails and stumbled upon this natural wonder right in our own backyard. Growing up in Florida, I always knew that the Kennedy Space Center was right in the middle of Canaveral National Seashore, but I wasn’t aware that a huge portion of the natural land around the space center is actually considered Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, under the jurisdiction of the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

The Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge has lots to offer a frugal Florida family! While we were in the area, there were two main attractions within the refuge that I really wanted to check out. I had read on the US Fish and WIldlife Service website that there was a wildlife drive that was available for visitors to actually drive through. It sounded a bit like a drive through safari so it was the main destination of the day. Known as the Black Point Wildlife Drive, this twisting, winding, one way dirt road was a perfect start to our adventure. This is a well maintained dirt path, with multiple places to pull over and observe the local wildlife. The best times to go are early morning around sunrise or a few hours before sunset. We saw tons of birds, but little else on the wildlife drive. Granted we were there in the middle of the day, but it was still cool to check out. The admission is $5 per car and it’s handled on the honor system with a pay-station at the entrance. You can also pay your entry fee at the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge Welcome Center as well.

You may have noticed that we have done some massive updates to our calendar! One of the latest additions that we are proud to post is the Daily City Food Truck Bazaar! We have been to quite a few of these events locally but never checked out their website. We were surprised when we travelled to Brevard County for the Space Coast Light Fest and saw this travelling culinary event.

So what exactly is a food truck bazaar? Quit simply it’s a roaming food truck event that offers great variety and wind up being a focal point in the community. Most of the bazaars are setup on a fairly regular schedule. For example, the fourth Monday of each month ect. There are a few exceptions so you may want to check out their calendar on their website before you head on out. because these events are usually setup outside in the open, they are also subject to shut down during inclement weather.

Space Coast Light Fest FREE Ticket Give Away!

How would you like to take your family to checkout the Space Coast Light Fest? Well here’s your chance to get a FREE pass for this spectacular family event! Sponsored annually by the Brevard County Parks & Recreation department in conjunction with the Boy Scouts of America, this event is destined to become a permanent addition to your holiday calendar. The Brevard County Boy Scouts would love to entertain your family this year! Enter our drawing below for a chance to win FREE tickets.

Frugal Florida Fun uses the Rafflecopter system to run our give aways. All you need to do is Like our page on Facebook and / or follow us on Twitter to be able to enter. Remember to actually enter the give away once you have become fans of our social media! If you’re already following us on Facebook or Twitter, don’t worry you can simply enter below! The drawing ends on December 2nd, and winners will be notified via email. We will need a valid mailing address to mail your tickets to! (PO Boxes are acceptable.) Tickets will be mailed the day after your address is received. You can enter once a day, so be sure to keep coming back to get more entries! Winners must contact us by December 7th with your address so we can still give other families an opportunity to attend. Special thanks to the Boy Scouts of America for donating these tickets!

With Christmas fast approaching, we have found all sorts of Christmas themed events that we plan on attending, but it’s going to be really difficult to top the Space Coast Light Fest. Last year we drive around town looking at Christmas lights as a family and when we discovered the Space Coast Light Fest, it really upped the ante!

Presented by the Brevard Boy Scots of America, this drive through annual event features hundreds of thousand lights! Think the Griswold house but amplified. Located in Wickham park in Melbourne, you’ll get to drive through over a mile of animated displays, lights, and much more. Upon exiting the park, you’ll get to drive through an amazing tunnel of lights. More than just random light displays, you’ll get to see familiar stories such as the Night Before Christmas, and experience the 12 days of Christmas in shimmering lights. Once you’re in the park, you can drive through the Space Coast Light Fest as many times as you want. We did the loop three times and kept finding more and more displays to check out!

In addition to the spectacular light shows, the Space Coast Light Fest features live music at the Wickham park amphitheatre as well as nightly visits from Mr. S. Clause himself! Remember this entire event is put on by the Boy Scouts of America and the Brevard County Parks & Recreation Department so they really do a good job of being hospitable to their guests. Refreshments in the form of Hot Cocoa, popcorn, and toasted marshmallows are available at reasonable prices. I didn’t quite understand the marshmallow toasting at first. I thought they were for the cocoa. Leave it to my 7 year old nephew to point out that I didn’t quite get it until I saw the fire place that was perfect for toasting! They also host special events including a 5k run, hay rides, special nights where you can walk through the lights, and special themed nights.

While researching fun and free things to do in Florida this weekend I stumbled a great event! On Saturday June 8th, HealthFirst will be sponsoring their annual Free CPR classes in Brevard County! This is something everyone should know how to do and a must for all parents or anyone who watches children. This annual event is going strong now for five ears and is quite the community event. It started as a way to bring CPR training to local community members and has really morphed into something much more. A morning filled with other activities as well as critical FREE training. The first year, over 125 community members received free CPR classes, and last year over 2,000 attended!

Start your morning off right with a free heat healthy fun run/walk. This 5K event is open to the public and it’s not timed, it’s just for fun. Go for the walk, stay for the free CPR Classes! In addition to both the walk and the training, look what else you can expect: